Professor Leigh Royden grew up in California, where she spent most of her time in the swimming pool. She studied physics at Harvard and then received her PhD from MIT in geology and geophysics. At Harvard she competed in crew, both in the single and the eight, winning the US women’s single sculls championships and, with the US National team, a silver medal in the eights in the world championships. Disheartened by the US boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games, Leigh returned to graduate school full–time. She survived a two–year postdoctoral appointment at Harvard and then returned to MIT, where she has been on the faculty ever since. She has a husband, three adult children, two horses, and a dog.